AfricanPoliticsExtraCredit - Gregory Arnold PSC 2381...

Gregory Arnold PSC 2381 Professor Gina Lambright 12/11/11 2011 General Election in Democratic Republic of the Congo On November 28, 2011, people went to the polls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to vote for parliament and the presidency in this war torn and underdeveloped African country. For president, there were only two major candidates, incumbent Joseph Kabila and opposition leader Étienne Tshisekedi. On December 8, after nearly 2/3rds of the votes were counted, Kabila announced himself as the winner, with around 49% of the vote. However, this has hardly ended the drama surrounding the election. Tshisekedi has declared that, with “32%” of the vote, the government of Kabila is lying, and he is in fact the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Indeed, in the aftermath of the voting, thousands of people fled the Democratic Republic of Congo fearing what would happen as the votes were counted and the results announced. Despite calls by Tshisekedi for his supporters to be peaceful, there are fears that Kabila’s cancelling of previous, constitutionally-mandated runoff elections will lead to greater protest and repression. Similarly, many international observers have stated

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